Improvement in renovating tobacco



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ENOCH HUSE, OF NEWBURYP ORT, MASSACHUSETTS,

IMPROVEMENT IN RENOVATING TOBACCO.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 3,673, dated July :22, 1844.

' ot' the value of this article of commerce from the above cause ot'ten amounts to titty or more per cent, the same occurring not so much by reason of real injury of the tobacco as by the change created in its appearance. It has therefore been a greatdesideratum with tobacco dealers to discover some efiicient process of destroying the mold and renovating the tobacco or restoring it to the appearance it usually has when first prepared for the market. The process generally adopted consists in separat' ing or tearing apart the lumps, plugs, cakes, or rolls composing a package of tobacco, and repressing them, which, besides being attended with a great deal of labor, transportation, (for such operation has generally been done in the Southern States, requiring the tobacco to be sent there,) and consequent expense, does not restore the article to the marketable appearance it usually bears when first manufactured.

My process consists in immersing or soaking the package of tobacco in water for live minutes or upward, as circumstances may require; and as the tobacco is usually packed in boxes or kegs, I generally-introduce the same filled with the damaged tobacco, into the vat of water. This being accomplished' nd the water having penetrated the tobacco t0 the necessary degree, (which a little practice will soon enable a workman to determine,) the tobacco is next removed from the vat and put into-an oven or drying-room, and there subjected to such a heat as may be necessary to entirely or nearly dissipate the water and destroy the mold, the saidheat varying (according to circumstances) from 100 Fahrenheit to. such a heat as the article will bear without scorching or burning to an injurious degree.

In order to produce this heat any of the known modes may be adopted. I prefer, however, what may be termed a dry heat rather than a steam-heat or the introduction of steam into the dryirig-apartment, whether in pipes or otherwise; but as it is sometimes the case that steam may be thrown upon the article in the apartment to good effect, I consider this as-but one of the modes of applying heat to efl'ect the destruction or apparent or real disappearance of the mold. 1 next subject the article so heated to powerful pressure, which may be produced by a hydraulic or other suitable press, and in thesame mannerasthctobaccois usually pressed into boxes or kegs for the merchant or market.

By such a combination of soaking or steaming, heating, and pressing the tobacco I comple-tely restore it, or give to it the same, or very nearly the same, marketable appearance it possessed when first manufactured; and therefore, in concluding the description of my process of renovating tobacco, I wish it to be understood that I claim the said process substantially as hereinabove explained.

In testimony that the above is a true description of my said discovery or process I have hereto set my signature this 13th day of June, A. I). 1844.

ENOGEI HUSE.

Witnesses:-

WILLIAM DAVIS, JOHN HUSE- 

